Lost - Every Man for Himself

*** / ****

How to con a con and earn his respect? Sawyer has during his life perfected the art of the con. He’s good at chicanery, at tricking folks so that he is successful in improving his own position. Sawyer was in prison prior to the island, learning of a daughter from a woman he conned when she visits him. Sawyer was working a new con, perfecting a dupe on a white collar criminal who stole from the government so that he could get out of a six year prison term. Warden was Bill Duke…nice to see him working an apple while needling Sawyer who was in the middle of securing the trust of the white collar crook. Sure enough, Sawyer gets the goods on the location of the money, earning a bit of funds from the government for himself. And he got out of jail, leaving instructions for the money to go to his daughter (with no knowledge of where the money came from). But his entrapment under the clever Ben won’t be so easy to just escape. Ben even pulls a fast one on Sawyer, dragging him into a room, binding him to a table, with a hypodermic from one of the Others aimed for him chest. A rabbit in a little cage collapsing at Ben’s shaking gets Sawyer’s attention…as does the proclamation that a pacemaker was installed as a means to control him! So Sawyer is convinced (in part due to the heart monitor watch wrapped around his arm by Ben) that if his temperature rises to a certain level his heart will explode! Ben is so wily, and his presentations can get your attention!

Sawyer’s attention up to this point is to escape. If anything, the escape was motivation just to get free from the Others. But Kate has been proven to be a crux for Sawyer, her overall health and wellbeing, welfare and safety important to him. Ben can threaten Kate and Sawyer, no matter the bravado and claims of only caring for himself (“every man for himself”), will almost certainly comply. Kate has learned of a way to escape through the top of the cage, even proving to Sawyer by doing it, but Ben’s con on him regarding the pacemaker holds him still. Kate won’t just leave Sawyer, climbing right back in her cage. Then Ben shows Sawyer something else, taking him to the top of a mountain to look over at his island! Yes, the Others are on a separate island and Ben mockingly points out to Sawyer that he can’t just escape. In my mind I immediately thought about the sailboat…that just might be the way. At any rate, this episode establishes that Kate and Sawyer (and Jack) are temporarily confined to a different island (“twice the size of Alcatraz”) while Ben seems to have the upper hand (…again).

 __________________________________________________________________________Having a spinal surgeon nearby certainly comes in handy for Ben, so Jack is called to action by Juliet to help try and keep Colleen alive after she was shot by Sun-Hwa. Jack learns that Juliet was a fertility doc, so her skills at keeping Colleen alive were quite limited. Jack knew Colleen was a goner yet, just the same, he gave it a go, but without shock paddles (a defib machine) her fate was sealed. Danny losing Colleen, his wife, enrages him obviously. The Oceanic have taken another of their party. They got a boat in return. Ben wants Jack to stay in the operating room a little bit, handcuffed to the table while Colleen’s body lies under a sheet. Jack, though, does appear to have a bit of leverage…he has skills that are needed. When Jack noticed X-rays of a tumor on the spine, he confronts Juliet about it. Jack is realizing that his purpose with the Others is to help fix a member of their party. Kate and Sawyer briefly notice Jack being taken to the operating room from his cell, a bag over his head and a loud alarm going off to drown out their call to him. In his cell, Jack could hear Sawyer crying out at Ben and his guards while strapped to the table. Realizing they are all still alive and near keeps the hope alive, at any rate.

Jack seems to have found a slight fracture in the relationship between Ben and Juliet. Jack pointing out how Ben would have let her die when he took her hostage, ordering her around despite Juliet persisting that they are equals. Before the Oceanic crashes on their island, Ben comments about Juliet supposedly excommunicating him from their book club. Juliet bringing Jack food and his frustrations regarding being held in his own cell, wondering what they want of him, is an opening he takes advantage of. Because Jack does prove a point: it does appear that Ben is in control and that Juliet and the Others are but his lackeys to command at will. Colleen did go to Ben with what to do about the sailboat, and he watches the monitors (he watched the entire escape of Kate and her return to the cage!), plotting and planning his next steps. But what about those X-rays? Could they be Ben’s? That would be quite a bit of leverage for Jack if Ben, the almighty leader of the Others, were in need of serious surgery.

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Desmond’s undergoing a peculiar “change” since key-turning the failsafe, releasing the electromagnetic force from The Swan, which sent a shockwave into the atmosphere, causing the sky to go violent, has turned into quite a development on Lost. He was aware of Locke’s speech before he gives it, stunning Hurley once Desmond’s clairvoyance is confirmed. Desmond’s attempt to shore up Claire’s hut’s roof (with Charlie immediately confronting Des) and the “weather device” he later throws together makeshift with this accumulation of throwaway parts (including a 5-iron golf club) that attracts lightning (away from Claire’s hut, protecting the baby from obvious peril!) further elaborate his newfound “future sight”. This subplot allows the viewer to still spend a little bit of time on the main island, although the chief interest of the writer’s room is the “alternate” island. Because Sawyer’s character is of specific interest both in flashback and dealing with captivity (and Ben’s conning of him), the main seasonal arc continues to be with him, Kate, and Jack. Sawyer being put in his place, so to speak, by Ben is a way for the character to receive a challenge. His ego is bruised and Ben proves that Sawyer, typically pulling a fast one, can be duped as well. Danny pummeling Sawyer in front of Kate (and Sawyer not retaliating due to the pacemaker façade) just to see if she’ll admit to loving him further continues to build their own complicated relationship. Sawyer and Kate’s relationship, neither just outright admitting to how they feel about each other (instead, hiding behind their wall, to supposedly protect their cultivated barrier against the feels), has continued to evolve. Despite their awareness, Sawyer and Kate still refuse to address how they truly feel. When Kate shoos away the admittance of loving Sawyer as “just trying to keep him safe, nothing more”, once again she just denies the obvious. Sawyer, after being led to the mountain top to see his island at a distance, gets some text from “Of Mice and Men” by Ben, the discussion of his real feelings for Kate. So Kate and Sawyer’s feelings are used against them…this is Ben’s leverage.

Episode 4 of the third season